Shower Doors in New Vintage Bathroom?!

lauren674October 15, 2008

Its just not old vintage style to have a glass enclosed shower. Our bathroom is nearly complete now, and we wanted a really great shower to enjoy even though its a SMALL narrow bathroom. So, there's the black/white daisy hex floor, console sink, subway tile, body sprays, and now the new shower glass...and its ready to use!

Just wanted to share as follow-up to my hex floor post. (Excuse no TP/books/towel holder yet and windex bottle is in the pics.)

That's the most 'invisible', least offensive and neatest door I've ever seen, plus being on the side, rather than 'facing' also takes away from the non-vintage look (just less obvious). I think you've done a great job. Vintage and authenticity are nice, but in the end we don't really want to have to live the actual way people had to 100 or even 50 yrs ago when it comes to bathrooms and kitchens after all,

That's what we think too, though this was more for DH because I originally thought that I'd prefer a deep tub for the option of a great bath too. We do have an old deep tub in the upstairs bath anyways. Showers are a daily for us, and DH felt strongly about not stepping into a tub anymore and having a bit more floor space in the pan vs a tub.

The Moen shower package came with only one style of handle trim so that was my only real hesitation. No one asked or said about the handles on the shower door, they were just there when they finished. Would have liked a vintage style keeping the same function on those things.

This bathroom shows a solution to a badly placed window that extended 1/3 into the shower area. We struggled this challenge in how to install a shower with doors...maybe this will help someone else some day.

Sharp, and I don't even like glass shower doors. :-) I was wondering how you were going to work it around the window and they did a good job of it.

FWIW, on p.70 of "Bungalow Bathrooms" Jane Powell says glass shower doors were becoming more prevalent by the 1920s - granted, they weren't enormous frameless slabs o' glass like this, because they just didn't have the technology for it then, but still, you're not totally out of line for the period of your house.

Johnmari....Hi! I so loved the bathroom you created in your previous house. Hard to believe this job has been in progress since then. I'm glad to hear that shower doors were around back then so maybe its not completely out of line. Be assured I will actually be pulling out my book and turning to p.70 after this post.

DH LOVES shower door and HATES tubs and curtains. We have a shower stall in the basement he's been using for 3 years now while this was 'in the works'...very small. Anyways, this shower was definitely built for him, but maybe I'm going to enjoy it too now that its here. I'm certainly enjoying having a finished functional bathroom instead of a construction zone with exposed lathe.

Lauren, I miss that bathroom every day! I'm not going to be able to recreate it or really anything much like it here, sadly... due to the single bathroom's size and layout we are stuck with niche-tub-with-shower (I prefer baths, DH prefers showers) and for structural reasons we can only do acrylic. Waaah. No tile on the floor, either, since there's too much deflection and it would raise the floor height enough to create a real trip hazard anyway. I hope to distract with a cool wallpaper frieze, awesome lighting fixtures, and an antique vanity. Still, that'll be a few years away (more waaah) since we spent a lot outside this year and a chunk of our cash-on-hand lately has gone to help various family members survive this economy.

(This house HAD no full bathroom until early 2007, when PO-the-flipper put one in with the cheapest possible junk that's already showing definite wear, including the most uncomfortable tub in the universe. A previous resident told us that the narrow front hallway had been blocked off and a toilet, sink, and tiny metal stall shower had been shoehorned in there - she said it was a real horror.)

I tend to be a bit of a purist, however I think this looks "vintage" enough. Maybe showers werent commonly used but Im sure they existed somewhere. It looks like it COULD HAVE BEEN authentic - great details in the hinges, door handle, plumbing hardware.

Well, this bathroom update is now several years old. We recently had the house appraised and had to tell the appraiser it was a NEW bathroom, because it fits right in the house. I'm adding a link to the pictures for clubcracker.

I do not have a floor plan. Its a narrow bathroom, the shower is standard tub size about 5' x 2.5'